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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Part I: Understanding Physics Fundamentals
Part II: Doing Some Field Work: Electricity and Magnetism
Part III: Catching On to Waves: The Sound and Light Kinds
Part I: Understanding Physics Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Understanding Your World: Physics II, the Sequel
Getting Acquainted with Electricity and Magnetism
Looking at static charges and electric field
AC circuits: Regenerating current with electric and magnetic fields
Getting along with sound waves
Reflection and refraction: Bouncing and bending light
Searching for images: Lenses and mirrors
Calling interference: When light collides with light
Branching Out with Modern Physics
Shedding light on blackbodies: Warm bodies make their own light
Speeding up with relativity: Yes, E = mc^2
Assuming a dual identity: Matter travels in waves, too
Chapter 2: Gearing Up for Physics II
Math and Measurements: Reviewing Those Basic Skills
Using the MKS and CGS systems of measurement
Keeping it short with scientific notation
Refreshing Your Physics Memory
Moving along with velocity and acceleration
Strong-arm tactics: Applying some force
Getting around to circular motion
Getting electrical with circuits
Part II: Doing Some Field Work: Electricity and Magnetism
Chapter 3: Getting All Charged Up with Electricity
Understanding Electric Charges
Can’t lose it: Charge is conserved
Opposites attract: Repelling and attracting forces
Static electricity: Building up excess charge
Considering the medium: Conductors and insulators
Coulomb’s Law: Calculating the Force between Charges
Sheets of charge: Presenting basic fields
Looking at electric fields from charged objects
Uniform electric fields: Taking it easy with parallel plate capacitors
Shielding: The electric field inside conductors
Getting the lowdown on electric potential
Finding the work to move charges
Finding the electric potential from charges
Illustrating equipotential surfaces for point charges and plates
Storing Charge: Capacitors and Dielectrics
Figuring out how much capacitors hold
Getting extra storage with dielectrics
Calculating the energy of capacitors with dielectrics
Chapter 4: The Attraction of Magnetism
All About Magnetism: Linking Magnetism and Electricity
Electron loops: Understanding permanent magnets and magnetic materials
Moving Along: Magnetic Forces on Charges
Finding the magnitude of magnetic force
Finding direction with the right-hand rule
A lazy direction: Seeing how magnetic fields avoid work
Going orbital: Following charged particles in magnetic fields
Down to the Wire: Magnetic Forces on Electrical Currents
From speed to current: Getting current in the magnetic-force formula
Torque: Giving current a twist in electric motors
Going to the Source: Getting Magnetic Field from Electric Current
Producing a magnetic field with a straight wire
Getting centered: Finding magnetic field from current loops
Adding loops together: Making uniform fields with solenoids
Chapter 5: Alternating Current and Voltage
AC Circuits and Resistors: Opposing the Flow
Finding Ohm’s law for alternating voltage
Averaging out: Using root-mean-square current and voltage
Staying in phase: Connecting resistors to alternating voltage sources
AC Circuits and Capacitors: Storing Charge in Electric Field
Introducing capacitive reactance
Getting out of phase: Current leads the voltage
AC Circuits and Inductors: Storing Energy in Magnetic Field
Faraday’s law: Understanding how inductors work
Introducing inductive reactance
Getting behind: Current lags voltage
The Current-Voltage Race: Putting It Together in Series RLC Circuits
Impedance: The combined effects of resistors, inductors, and capacitors
Determining the amount of leading or lagging
Peak Experiences: Finding Maximum Current in a Series RLC Circuit
Semiconductors and Diodes: Limiting Current Direction
The straight dope: Making semiconductors
One-way current: Creating diodes
Part III: Catching On to Waves: The Sound and Light Kinds
Energy Travels: Doing the Wave
Back and forth: Longitudinal waves
Wave Properties: Understanding What Makes Waves Tick
Relating the parts of a wave mathematically
Watching for the sine: Graphs of waves
When Waves Collide: Wave Behavior
Chapter 7: Now Hear This: The Word on Sound
Vibrating Just to Be Heard: Sound Waves as Vibrations
Cranking Up the Volume: Pressure, Power, and Intensity
Under pressure: Measuring the amplitude of sound waves
Calculating the Speed of Sound
Fast: The speed of sound in gases
Faster: The speed of sound in liquids
Fastest: The speed of sound in solids
Echoing back: Reflecting sound waves
Sharing spaces: Sound wave interference
Bending rules: Sound wave diffraction
Coming and going with the Doppler effect
Breaking the sound barrier: Shock waves
Chapter 8: Seeing the Light: When Electricity and Magnetism Combine
Let There Be Light! Generating and Receiving Electromagnetic Waves
Creating an alternating electric field
Getting an alternating magnetic field to match
Looking at Rainbows: Understanding the Electromagnetic Spectrum
Perusing the electromagnetic spectrum
Relating the frequency and wavelength of light
See Ya Later, Alligator: Finding the Top Speed of Light
Checking out the first speed-of-light experiment that actually worked
Calculating the speed of light theoretically
You’ve Got the Power: Determining the Energy Density of Light
Averaging light’s energy density
Chapter 9: Bending and Focusing Light: Refraction and Lenses
Wave Hello to Rays: Drawing Light Waves More Simply
Slowing Light Down: The Index of Refraction
Calculating the bending: Snell’s law
Rainbows: Separating wavelengths
Bending Light to Get Internal Reflection
Right back at you: Total internal reflection
Polarized light: Getting a partial reflection
Getting Visual: Creating Images with Lenses
Now it’s coming into focus: Concave and convex lenses
Getting Numeric: Finding Distances and Magnification
Going the distance with the thin-lens equation
Sizing up the magnification equation
Combining Lenses for More Magnification Power
Understanding how microscopes and telescopes work
Getting a new angle on magnification
Chapter 10: Bouncing Light Waves: Reflection and Mirrors
The Plane Truth: Reflecting on Mirror Basics
Getting the angles on plane mirrors
Forming images in plane mirrors
Working with Spherical Mirrors
Getting the inside scoop on concave mirrors
Smaller and smaller: Seeing convex mirrors at work
The Numbers Roundup: Using Equations for Spherical Mirrors
Getting numerical with the mirror equation
Discovering whether it’s bigger or smaller: Magnification
Chapter 11: Shedding Light on Light Wave Interference and Diffraction
When Waves Collide: Introducing Light Interference
Meeting at the bars: In phase with constructive interference
Going dark: Out of phase with destructive interference
Interference in Action: Getting Two Coherent Light Sources
Splitting light with double slits
Gasoline-puddle rainbows: Splitting light with thin-film interference
Single-Slit Diffraction: Getting Interference from Wavelets
Huygens’s principle: Looking at how diffraction works with a single slit
Getting the bars in the diffraction pattern
Doing diffraction calculations
Multiple Slits: Taking It to the Limit with Diffraction Gratings
Separating colors with diffraction gratings
Trying some diffraction-grating calculations
Seeing Clearly: Resolving Power and Diffraction from a Hole
Chapter 12: Heeding What Einstein Said: Special Relativity
Blasting Off with Relativity Basics
Start from where you’re standing: Understanding reference frames
Looking at special relativity’s postulates
Seeing Special Relativity at Work
Slowing time: Chilling out with time dilation
Packing it in: Length contraction
Pow! Gaining momentum near the speed of light
Here It Is! Equating Mass and Energy with E = mc^2
An object’s rest energy: The energy you could get from the mass
An object’s kinetic energy: The energy of motion
New Math: Adding Velocities Near Light Speed
Chapter 13: Understanding Energy and Matter as Both Particles and Waves
Blackbody Radiation: Discovering the Particle Nature of Light
Understanding the trouble with blackbody radiation
Being discrete with Planck’s constant
Light Energy Packets: Advancing with the Photoelectric Effect
Understanding the mystery of the photoelectric effect
Einstein to the rescue: Introducing photons
Explaining why electrons’ kinetic energy is independent of intensity
Explaining why electrons are emitted instantly
Doing calculations with the photoelectric effect
Collisions: Proving the Particle Nature of Light with the Compton Effect
The de Broglie Wavelength: Observing the Wave Nature of Matter
Interfering electrons: Confirming de Broglie’s hypothesis
Calculating wavelengths of matter
Not Too Sure about That: The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Understanding uncertainty in electron diffraction
Deriving the uncertainty relation
Calculations: Seeing the uncertainty principle in action
Chapter 14: Getting the Little Picture: The Structure of Atoms
Figuring Out the Atom: The Planetary Model
Rutherford scattering: Finding the nucleus from ricocheting alpha particles
Collapsing atoms: Challenging Rutherford’s planetary model
Answering the challenges: Being discrete with line spectra
Fixing the Planetary Model of theHydrogen Atom: The Bohr Model
Finding the allowed energies of electrons in the Bohr atom
Getting the allowed radii of electron orbits in the Bohr atom
Finding the Rydberg constant using the line spectrum of hydrogen
Putting it all together with energy level diagrams
De Broglie weighs in on Bohr: Giving a reason for quantization
Electron Configuration: Relating Quantum Physics and the Atom
Understanding four quantum numbers
Number crunching: Figuring out the number of quantum states
Multi-electron atoms: Placing electrons with the Pauli exclusion principle
Using shorthand notation for electron configuration
Chapter 15: Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity
Now for a little chemistry: Sorting out atomic mass and number
Neutron numbers: Introducing isotopes
Boy, that’s small: Finding the radius and volume of the nucleus
Calculating the density of the nucleus
The Strong Nuclear Force: Keeping Nuclei Pretty Stable
Finding the repelling force between protons
Holding it together with the strong force
Hold on tight: Finding the binding energy of the nucleus
Understanding Types of Radioactivity, from α to γ
Releasing helium: Radioactive alpha decay
Gaining protons: Radioactive beta decay
Emitting photons: Radioactive gamma decay
Grab Your Geiger Counter: Half-Life and Radioactive Decay
Halftime: Introducing half-life
Decay rates: Introducing activity
Chapter 16: Ten Physics Experiments That Changed the World
Michelson’s Measurement of the Speed of Light
Young’s Double-Slit Experiment: Light Is a Wave
Jumping Electrons: The Photoelectric Effect
Davisson and Germer’s Discovery of Matter Waves
Curie’s Discovery of Radioactivity
Rutherford’s Discovery of the Atom’s Nucleus
Putting a Spin on It: The Stern-Gerlach Experiment
The Atomic Age: The First Atomic Pile
Verification of Special Relativity
Chapter 17: Ten Online Problem-Solving Tools
Centripetal Acceleration (Circular Motion) Calculator
Energy Stored in a Capacitor Calculator
Electrical Resonance Frequency Calculator
Capacitive Reactance Calculator
Inductive Reactance Calculator